[bnb]

Zuma said it better than I could have so I’ll just add that I agree with him. I know that my hides were influenced by my LO finds. But perhaps, more importantly, her absolute enthusiasm for the sport and its participants has been contagious. She strongly encouraged me to come down to Devil’s Lake to help with temp hides for the picnic there many years ago. She even provided overnight accommodations for my son and I (and for my whole family a couple of weeks later before the picnic). While my hides were less than spectacular (I had never hidden a cache before) the experience made me want to be even more involved in the sport. From her I realized what a great opportunity this sport provides for meeting some really great people.

Ruth

[bnb]

My spouse and I adopted a series of caches whose containers were all made of PVC. For the most part they have held up okay, but the ones that have had more exposure to the environment have not done as well. They are hard to tighten securely enough to assure no water gets in and often, if tightened this well, geocachers can’t open them. Or, if water is on the threads when tightened, it then freezes shut. Pine sap works well as an unwelcome glue when accidentally applied to the threads, too.

These containers were designed with the cap threading around the outside of the pipe so one was able to get a pretty good grip on it and they were still sometimes hard to re-open. PVC containers that thread the inside of the pipe are even harder to open because it is hard to get a good grip on the lid.

And two did get confiscated as suspicious – but we know that happens to all types of containers.

In my opinion, there are better containers than PVC pipes.

Ruth

[bnb]

@Jeremy wrote:

I get strange looks from people regardless of what I am carrying.

Well, I figured that, but was trying to be polite for a change. 🙂

Thanks for the tip on the backpack thing. I’ll have to look into that.

[bnb]

My first cache find was after an 8 inch snowfall (I know that seems minor after what you people got hit with today). It was Officer’s Scenic Cache at a rest stop on I-94. Great cache! We had a nice hike up a hill and had to find the cache under the snow.

Snowcover makes it more likely that I’ll read the hint. I also probably won’t try caches that I know are on really steep hills. But, the middle of winter is the best time to look for caches in swamps.

The best part of winter geocaching is the small number of mosquitoes and deer flies.

Ruth

[bnb]

Jeremy, do you keep your hands in the muff while you walk through the woods? After stitches in my chin and much, expensive, dental work I have made it a rule to never walk, where I need to step over things, with my hands in my pockets (or a muff). You never know when you’ll need them to break a fall. That muff does look cozy, though.

I use tight fitting liners under Gore-tex gloves. If it is warm enough, the liners are sufficient, unless digging through the snow. (But that won’t be a problem once I start carrying a brush.

Do you ever get strange looks from people who see you walking through the woods carrying your car brush?

How do you carry the car brush with your hands in the muff? 🙂

Since my toes always get cold, I use toe warmers if I’ll be out for awhile. I also carry them along as cache stash during the winter.

I try to remember to carry a pencil in case the cache has a now-frozen pen in it.

Keep extra batteries in an inside pocket so they stay warm. Put the GPSr in an inside pocket whenever not needed.

[bnb]

Thanks for the info. Now I just have to remember this until the next time I find myself in Wausau. Would a picture of my GPSr while at that location be good enough proof?

[bnb]

@CinemaBoxers wrote:

If the locations TAKE you somewhere interesting, or have you find interesting containers, or fun spots – then I understand a good multi. But some of the ones we have found would have been perfectly acceptable traditionals.

You may not always know the reason behind the multi locations. One of my caches is a multi simply because the final is in an area that could be accessed easily by parking alongside a nearby road and bushwhacking through the woods to get to it. But, the point of putting the cache where I did was to get people to explore a certain set of trails that are normally ignored. I made it a multi to draw the geocacher to a different area first and then, if they desire, on to the final (actually, it is a bonus cache so the final isn’t necessary for a smiley.) Another multi of mine purposely takes you down a great trail but sends you elsewhere to keep you off of sensitive terrain. The final is nothing spectacular, but I didn’t want to hide anything along the trail.

Ruth

[bnb]

This is now up to 22 caches in the Bjornson forest. I couldn’t possibly recommend these strongly enough. This place is great! I have been here for two visits now and still have seven caches to find (I need to get an earlier start to the day). They won’t all be an easy hike but each one I’ve found has been worth the effort. It is so great to park the car and geocache for hours without driving anywhere. Plot them on a topo map and you’ll see that you won’t be idly strolling from one to the next. Mama Kat will keep you in shape and thinking. She throws in a geobeacon or two to keep you from getting too frustrated. Even my bored-with-geocaching daughter had a great time out there with me today (four hours worth!) There’s even a geo-muggling bear to keep things interesting.

[bnb]

That looks like the one I had to climb on my bike to reach. It’s pretty hard to be stealthy when doing that.

[bnb]

I don’t know if this fits in with your schedule, but a group from MN is planning on tackling The Gauntlet on 11/12. See their meet/greet event cache and MnGCA forum for more info.

[bnb]

@zuma wrote:

The biggest challenge came when my daughter wrecked my new computer, so I am without a computer at home for a few weeks, which means no gsak and no pqs. God, I hate it when I cannot adequately feed my addictions.

zuma

I can lend you a laptop – complete with GSAK and other geocaching programs (thanks Cathunter), if you would like. It is not needed at this time so it really would be no bother. I’ll trade one tent for one laptop if you promise not to tell Chiot that the laptop exists. 🙂

Ruth

[bnb]

Note: I am not an html expert. I just hack.

I looked at the page source for one of those caches and see the url as plain text. If you want it to be a clickable link, I believe you need to enter it like this:

The DNR Notification form and land manager information can be obtained
here.

But I very well could be wrong.

Ruth

[bnb]

Beaver Creek Reserve. I don’t know that their campsites are open to the public, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Ruth

[bnb]

@Commander Bob wrote:

@zuma wrote:

Those who would suggest that some BOD members are “not on the trails” are both ill-informed and foolish.

A simple check of a person’s profile may “inform” you otherwise. Making a statement like this without checking the facts could be considered foolish.

A geocaching.com profile is not proof of a person’s geocaching activity. If not all cache finds are logged, and not all cache hides are part of geocaching.com, they would not appear in the profile.

[bnb]

@MajorBrat wrote:

why can’t a person just send the note to all BOD members at once?

No one was ever stopped from doing that. We all have email addresses listed on the Board of Directors page of the website. It simply required writing nine email addresses in the “to” line and one could have made their own email alias if they desired.

I’m glad that greyhounder has taken on such an active role in the WGA…not just the BOD, but the WGA as a whole!

I’m glad, too. I really enjoy working with Bec and am glad she joined the bod.

…who holds a full-time job, is a volunteer BOD member, plans events, travels to events, and…unlike many others…is actually out there on the trails! ON A REGULAR BASIS!!!

As far as I know, all the bod fit the that description except for the “out there on the trails” part since I have no way of knowing if everyone has regular time for geocaching. I don’t know how anyone would know that without talking to them personally. Also, if life’s priorities forces someone to put *finding* geocaches on the back-burner, I don’t see how that makes them less of an active volunteer for the WGA.

Ignoring things until they settle down is…(censored)

I guess we disagree on that.

bnb wrote:
“Back to the subject, as Jeremy stated, please send us your concern/issue. If there is a bod that you know personally, you could send your email to that person and perhaps speak more comfortably. They could then paraphrase and pass on your concern.”

This is one of the things I was talking about. One BOD member reads something, they take from it what they deem important and relay that to the rest of the BOD. They paraphrase…was something lost in the translation? Was something taken out of context in the paraphrase? Was there a point that was missed by that one person, that someone else may have seen? Was the original concern actually passed on? Why paraphrase? Why not just let everyone see the original note and let everyone reply?

I don’t forward entire emails without the permission of the sender. I suggested writing to one bod if the member was more comfortable doing so. If the member wanted all to see the email, they could send it to all.

Ruth

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